Native American slave ownership refers to the ownership of enslaved Africans and Native Americans by Native Americans from the pre-colonial period to the U.S. Civil War. Waves of European colonization (and the concurrent Atlantic slave trade) brought enslaved Africans to North America. Following this development many indigenous tribes began to acquire Africans as slaves. Many prominent people from the "Five Civilized Tribes" purchased slaves from their white neighbors and became members of the planter class.